When the Labour Party last lost office, back in 2010, the debate over where the Blair-Brown governments had gone wrong was shaped – to an extraordinary extent – by the kind of thinking that is now called “Blue Labour.”
When trying to make sense of what had just occurred, the argument had two elements to it. The New Labour governments, it was said, had forgotten both a political value and a political mechanism with the same name: community.
They had forgotten, that is, that one of the primary roles of government is to promote a sense of national belonging, solidarity and connection. And they had forgotten that the primary agent of change did not always have to be the central state but also needed to be community organisations, such as churches, mosques and synagogues, co-operatives and charities.
In the years since, politicians of all stripes, along with independent think tanks, charities and scholars, have grappled with these ideas. The debate has gone in and out of fashion. It was sharpest during the Brexit years and dropped away a little during the pandemic. Now, it has once again roared back to life.
Faced with the kind of economic, political and social turmoil that characterises Britain in the mid-2020s, how should a Labour government react? Need it turn directly to the ideals of social connection and national identity, lest it cede that terrain to others? And if so, how does it mobilise a public that is increasingly sceptical of politics and political voices? Would it be plausible for Sir Keir Starmer to lead a campaign of patriotic solidarity today? Who would stand with him? And what would stand in its way?
These are vital questions that rightly capture attention across politics.
To answer them, this essay collection brings together a brilliant group of thinkers, politicians and independent commentators to explore how communitarianism might provide the roadmap to strengthening our politics and renewing Britain.
It is, we hope, the first of a series, and next we plan to assess the relationship between the Conservative tradition and communitarianism too. These ideas, after all, belong to no single ideological grouping. But as the governing party, charged with coming up with an answer urgently, it is right that we start with Labour, which has – as Ed Wallis sets out in the introduction – a long and complex history of interacting with these themes.